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Chicago wants to ban body armor

Chicago wants to ban body armor

For every human problem, it’s been said, there is a solution that is clear, simple and wrong. The Chicago City Council, unfortunately, has embraced one of those.

In February, Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer was fatally shot while trying to detain a suspect outside the Thompson Center. The felon arrested and charged was reportedly carrying a 9 mm Glock pistol — and wearing body armor. That got some aldermen busy on an ordinance to keep protective vests off the streets.

It’s an understandable reaction. The idea of bad guys outfitting themselves in bulletproof gear before setting out to prey on victims is alarming. A few weeks after Bauer’s murder, a man with a loaded pistol was arrested at Union Station wearing body armor.

Violent felons are already legally prohibited from buying or using the gear. But Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, thinks existing laws didn’t go far enough. His measure, passed March 28 by the City Council, states that “Chicagoans face an insurmountable threat if felons and other potential offenders continue to acquire such protections.” It forbids the sale or possession of flak jackets, with an exception for law enforcement officers, members of the military and emergency responders.

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Asked Burke, “Who leaves their home or place of business wearing body armor expecting to engage in an armed confrontation if not the hardcore criminal or a deranged mass shooter?”

Glad he asked. Some citizens don these vests not because they are criminals but because they fear criminals.

A cashier working nights at a liquor store might see the need. So might a ride-share driver who serves high-crime areas. Anyone living in gang-plagued neighborhoods where gun violence is routine could easily justify the cost of protection against bullets. And did we mention news reporters? The Chicago Tribune provides flak jackets to reporters who work overnight, often in dangerous areas.

A broad ban on body armor would deprive these and other law-abiding people of a means of avoiding sudden, violent death in a city where that fate is far too common. It’s the equivalent of banning deadbolt locks lest they be used to secure contraband.

If the city wants to keep protective vests away from criminals, a more sensible remedy would be to require background checks on sales, as the state requires for guns. But it’s not clear the problem is extensive enough to warrant that step.

Police and prosecutors can make it a priority to catch and punish violent felons who wear body armor, or anyone who commits a crime while wearing it — a separate offense that carries its own penalties.

But if innocent Chicagoans see a need to gird themselves against gunfire, the city should admit that it can’t count on the police to protect everyone — and let law-abiding citizens protect themselves.

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(c)2018 the Chicago Tribune

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Excellent column! When politicians come up with a bill, they are incapable of knowing what the total ramifications will be, since most politicians have no common sense, nor do they know what goes on in the real world!

AND if laws already exist PROHIBITING Felons from purchasing/wearing body armor, and THEY STILL ARE OWNING and wearing them, then i guess it is NOT CAUSE the laws are not clear, but CAUSE THE IDIOTS IN CHARGE are not enforcing them…

Well these “God in the mirror” liberals are running true to form. The more defenseless, disarmed and unprotected they can make the social paradigm of the humanity they seek to control, the better. The disarming of course is always sold as for the benefit of their intended victims, but is a ruse to gain control over their minds and bodies. Frankly, in the uncontrolled city of Chicago whose uncontrolled shootings run rampant, the average person walking down the street needs body armor and they should begin to sell and issue them in infant sizes to protect the babies in their carriages. Do not be deceived,,,the controllers are just seeking more control over WE THE PEOPLE whom they seek to make them more dependent upon THEM for a protection they are too inept to EVER provide. It is only the SELF-governing people they fear whom they seek to disarm and make vulnerable. Sheep are more easily herded into the voting booths and slaughterhouses, than well armed self-defending rams.

That’s brilliant! The gun and the vest are ALREADY banned for criminals but that’s not enough. Now let’s ban the vests for everyone…..
Chicago is another one of those liberal inner cities that are quickly becoming 3rd world hell holes and they just keep digging the hole deeper.

As an under 20 kid in the 1950s and 1960s we didn’t do any number of things that we knew were wrong for fear of being caught and punished. Today there is no fear because, to a large extent, people aren’t held accountable for their crimes / actions. Punishment should be harsh and swift, but we have the crazy left that believes there are no “bad kids”. Just Google “school to prison pipeline” to see for yourself the nonsense. The recent Florida school shooter was a beneficiary of this insane nonsense and now 17 people are dead, many wounded and many, many more traumatized by his actions. As there is no real questions regarding his guilt, he should be quickly tried (as is required by the Constitution), found guilty, sentenced to death and promptly (6 months or less) executed. People convicted and sentenced to death should only get a quick, single appeal that only looks at are they or are they not guilty of the crime(s) for which they were sentenced to die. If the appeal determines they are indeed guilty, they are promptly executed. No more appeals where the guilty languish on death row for 10, 20 or more years.